Take n’ Bake: Low Carb/Gluten Free Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I have been meaning to make a cinnamon-oriented baked good for quite some time. I am not sure if it is because I wanted to make up for the lack of seasonal weather that we usually get to experience during these months or if my new KitchenAid stand mixer was just too tempting to ignore, but either way, I had spices and crisp fall weather on my mind when I decided to take this Cinnamon Coffee Cake recipe and give it a bake. Or in today’s case, two.

Doesn’t it just look like a giant piece of Cinnamon Toast Crunch?

Layering the almond meal cake with a cinnamon/erythritol filling

Last year one of my roommates really got into the low carb diet and taught me about the different kinds of natural sweeteners and flours that are out there. I gained some insight into the effects of high carbohydrate-based diets, the issue of sugar intake, and what this whole gluten business is really all about. I have been trying to cut back on my consumption of all of these substances over the last few months. The hardest part was resisting the temptation of a good chocolate chip cookie or brown. However, once I started to do low carb baking, I did not find it to be much of a challenge to cut back as I could satisfy my forever-present sweet tooth right in the comfort of my home in a healthier way and feel less guilty about eating them.

I took a break from this “diet” for the past few weeks, but now I am back on it and decided that it is finally time to get to this cinnamon coffee cake. It is also my very good friend’s birthday, and since she has trouble eating dairy and gluten, I thought I could whip up one of these cakes for her to have a sweet treat on her special day.

This cake is made from almond flour. The original recipe calls for the use of whey powder to help the cake rise. In my previous experience, I found that almond flour raises just high enough to make a baked good substantial when it is mixed with a little bit of baking powder. I did not have any whey powder at home so I figured I would forgo the special purchase. Luckily, it worked out just fine! That being said, even though I have worked with almond flour so many times, I am still impressed at how cake-like it can turn out to be, even though it just looks like soggy oatmeal pre-bake.

I made a version of this cake with erythritol and another with sugar. If you are going to bake this cake with sugar, I would recommend changing the proportion of sugar and cinnamon in the filling, making it more cinnamon-y and less sugar. Perhaps it does not take much to satisfy my sweet tooth anymore, but I have always found that coffee cakes are much more enjoyable when they are more heavy on the flavour rather than the sugar. Plus, this cake is quite buttery, so it may be a sensory overload with that much sugar and butter at once, given the size of the cake. In fact, I would even recommend swirling in a bit more cinnamon into the battery for a more savoury taste.